I’m in Turkey!!!! It’s been a great 8 months on the Race so far. 8 months! Time has flown but so much has happened. Half a week ago, my team arrived in this country and we had a very encouraging event take place. I thought I’d share it!
My entire squad of 28 people travelled from Georgia (not the state, the country) to the center of Turkey on a bus. Once we arrived, my smaller team of 7 was responsible for finding our own form of transportation to Istanbul. We hopped on a cab van that took us to the train station and searched for train tickets to our destination. Unfortunately, the trains to Istanbul were booked for the next 2 days and we had no access to wifi (you need a local SIM card to access public wifi at coffee shops and restaurants here) and we needed to find lodging. It was already around 7 pm with the sun setting so we were running short on time. As I walked through the train station looking for places to buy a cheap SIM card, my team pr@yed for a place to stay and direction for travel. I returned to my team, unsuccessful with finding a SIM card but the rest of my team had great news. While they were waiting for me outside of the train station, some of my team went inside a coffee shop and met a young local couple with a baby who offered all 8, yes 8, of us to stay at their place! They didn’t live extremely close to the place we met them, either. I don’t know if it’s common for locals to hang out at coffee shops situated right outside of train stations located halfway across town from their homes, but regardless this was a form of providence. They were such a sweet bunch of people as well! But wait, there’s more! The wife ended up cooking dinner for all 8, yes all 8, of us as well! We couldn’t talk her out of it. The food was amazing, too. The Turkish people are extremely hospitable, and we got a miraculous taste of it this past week. Now, after that encouraging encounter, my team is safely in Istanbul enjoying a month of fellowship, pr@yer, wership, and sharing good stories to people we meet. I’m excited to share more updates! Here’s a photo of this amazing couple with us at their dinner table:
